Paper, Poetry & Prose Volume Vi: An Anthology of Eighth Grade Writing

By Students of Pierce Middle School

Writing is a skill that no one can live without. Practicing and learning to write is very diffi cult, even more so when writing is just for a grade. Boredom sets in when students realize that their only audience is the teacher - again! The writing in this book was not graded. This book is the authentic writing of eighth grade students that were given only one direction, write about something you care about. Some authors write from the depths of their hearts, some share wicked humor, while others refl ect their loyalty to family or to friends. They wrote, rewrote, read with peers and helped one another. It is all their work, in their words, in their own unique perspective. Hopefully, these young writers will always remember that what they have to say is important and that they truly are published authors. Celebrate these writers - enjoy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462052134

Students of Pierce Middle School

The authors of this book are "Real World" writers. They are eighth grade students at Pierce Middle School in Waterford, Michigan. They have many stories, opinions, thoughts and experiences to share. The pieces are straight forward and honest, covering a variety of topics and ideas. Each student chose one piece of writing from the notebooks that they kept for a yearlong Writing Workshop Class. What they have picked will make you think, make you laugh, make you remember and maybe even make you cry. All of the writing was student written, student revised and student edited.

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Copyright © 2011 by Students of Pierce Middle School

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ISBN: 978-1-4620-5212-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-5213-4 (e)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 8/29/2011

Contents

Lacrosse

Brian’s Cold Drink

Broken Bones

Butterflies

Remember the Clippers

Tears of Love

Nowhere to be Found

Bullying

My First Real Gig: Cradle the Fall

Christmas Eve

My Weekend

A Scary Trip

Hotel Key Card

Inspiration

The Great Food Fight

Biking

A Thunderstorm

Like 1, 2, 3

Hunting

Orchestra

Heartbreak

My First Flip Trick

Crazy Day

Beautiful Sight

Colitis

October 25, 2010

Friendship

We Need a Phone

Fireworks

The 20th Annual Higgins Lake Trip

Abusing and Neglecting

Stereos Pumping

Football

Future Lost

A Dolphin Summer

Trapped

A Friend

Xbox

Summer Sun

Crying Pain

Two Poems

Imagination Poems

Homerun

Poem

Happy Being Me

Life or death

That Unexpected Night

Soccer

The Panther

Moving

Wounded Knee

My Story

A Bottle’s Voice

LACROSSE FIGHT!

Daffodils

Love and Hate

Choices

Shopping

LIFE WARNING

Florida

Escape

Inspiration

The Storm

Missing You

My Troubles, My Pain, My Everything

Out of Control

Parrots

Mimo

Basketball

Let’s Stand Tall

True Happiness

Come Back

To Write a Story

Me?

Friendship

Diabetes

Slide!

Catie Pelland

Dog Poems

Simple Text Message

By Blood.

What If

Rainbow After a Storm

Under the Bed

Scared Like Crazy

Just a Game

Global Warming

My Friends

Family Reunion

Mom

Biking

Madness at Megadeth

How My Life Was Saved

The Finals

Mourning

Flying Dream

A Painful Day

Death in Disguise

A Real Best Friend

The Circle

Dear Adult World!

Madison

Birthday Dinner

Worst Day Ever

Sk8ing vs. Biking

Dear Readers,

My Life

The Zip Line

Basketball

The Hatchet Incident

The Almost Surviving Survivors

The Lone Soldier

Grand Prix

Music

The Love Stare

Lacrosse

By Anthony Ala

Fight

Insults, Slashing

Punching, Kicking, Tackling

Kids, Field, Ref, Coach

Yelling, Cheering, Bragging, Running

Clean, Fun

Peace

Lacrosse

Teeth are clenched,

Face as red as blood, taking a pose –

Striking the first blow.

Like a panther in the jungle, attacking back

The enemy falls, wincing in pain.

No more fear,

the fight is over.

Lacrosse

Running, Scoring

Shooting, Shouting, Passing

Clarkston, Waterford, Troy

Living, Joking, Shouting

Laughing, Playing

Fun

Brian’s Cold Drink

By: Josh Alder

Game on. It was day one of my first ever salmon fishing trip. I was ecstatic to catch my first big salmon. I was also nervous because my dad’s friend, Brian, kept telling me stories about how people have fallen in the river and been hurt when they were fishing. I eventually learned that he was kidding about ninety-five percent of the stories he told me, but I still kept them in the back of my mind.

After about two hours of sleep, I woke up with all the energy I needed. My dad and Brian were a little bit reluctant to get up but they managed to roll out of bed and get some breakfast. We got to the river at about seven in the morning. It was really cold but I didn’t care! My excitement was too much to be concerned with being cold. I put on my waders and stepped into the river, with all the stories rolling through my mind that Brian had told me the day before.

After about an hour of walking, we had only caught one fish. We decided that we would walk to a deeper part of the river to see if there were any big fish over there. As we walked I noticed that the river was getting deeper and deeper quickly. I jumped on shore with my dad to make sure that no water got in my wadders, if it did it would make the whole trip cold and wet! Brian however, stayed in the river. I looked over from the shore and Brian was in about five and a half feet of water which meant that the water was close to spilling into his waders. All of the sudden I heard a loud, Uhhhhhh! As I turned to look all I could see was Brian trying to swim with the freezing water engulfing his whole body. He swam really slowly as all the water filled his waders. It was weighing him down.

He eventually made it to the shore and climbed very slowly up on the bank, and stood up without a word, you could tell he was so cold that he couldn’t move. His face and lips were blue and numb. He didn’t complain he just walked down the bank, and stepped back into the river. He fished with us for the rest of the day and then went back to the campground and changed his clothes. Even though it was only like five in the afternoon he built a fire and stood next to it for about four hours trying to warm up.

Broken Bones

By Ben Ancell

One day I was at my friend’s house playing. I was on the swing set going really high up in the air. I went back almost parallel with the bar. Then suddenly I plummeted to the ground. I tried to brace the fall with my arm by basically punching the ground.

I am sure I heard a snap when I hit the ground. I was down for a while then I got up. I was crying because I hit hard, and my arm had snapped. (Which would not be uncommon for a ten year old boy to cry.) My friend’s house was around the block from my house when this happened. I walked all the way back around the block to my house. Then my mom asked me what happened, so I told her and she tried to help me calm down. Then I had to wait almost two hours before my dad got home so we could go to Ambulatory.

I was in so much pain it was unbearable. Finally when my dad got there we left. We were sitting in the waiting room for a while then the lady called us back. I had an x-ray done to see the break in my arm. Then they splinted my arm with this cool thing that when it dry’s it gets harder then stays that way. We put a sling on it to help hold it up. Then I went home with that for about a month.

Then a month later we went to a different doctor to get a real cast. I picked out blue for my cast. When the doctor was setting my bones I was in so much pain. I couldn’t believe that he did not warn me that he was going to do that. It made me want to punch him out with my good hand! Then we went home, and about another month later I got a new cast.

When I got the first cast off my arm was extremely weak. I couldn’t even move it was so weak. I was glad that it was healing though. My new cast I picked out orange for the new color. It was pretty cool the orange was a very bright color. I had about two more casts after that then a thing with a metal thing to hold my arm straight that one I could take off if I wanted to.

Butterflies

By: Kate Anderson

EW! Look at that thing flap it’s disgusting, ugly, colorful wings! That’s just plain out scary. AHH! Get away from me, AWAY!

What the-? What is this girl doing?! Maybe she’s just stunned at how I’m so beautiful (Most likely). Why is she flapping’ her arms like that anyways? And why is she running around in circles? All I know is that this girl has some very serious issues. Oh, I know. Maybe she’s trying to fly?

EW! EW! EW! GET AWAY! AHH! Can’t you hear my ear piercing screams!? PLEASE JUST GO AWAY! Wait… can Butterflies hear? I don’t know. BUT JUST GO AWAY!

If this girl is trying to fly I swear, she is doing it so wrong! This girl is very, very, and I mean very, strange. And why is her mouth open like that? Seriously…

REALLY! GO AWAY! Here, I just put ten bucks on the ground here, take it and leave me alone. Aw! C’mon’. URGH!

Well sense this girl is, laying green things on the ground, opening her mouth, and running in circles…I’m just going to give her some air.

EUREKA! Finally! Yes! Wahoo! You’re gone! Finally that ugly thing is gone and